Summary

It is the first of July, and Hayward finds Queenie dead in her chair with a half-smoked cigarette and a book. Her children come back to the island for her funeral. Her body is cleaned by Clara and laid out on a table in her parlor. Queenie hasn't worn shoes for decades, and so she wears a dress and her slippers. The coffin, when it arrives, is too big for the door, and so a window must be taken out for it to be brought in and out. The community participates in these doings fully.

The Reverend opens the church for the funeral. During the funeral procession, Pilgrim suggests to Sweetland that she should have been buried under her house. In the church, Jesse insists on leaving space for Hollis to sit next to him, which Pilgrim abides. The congregation is quite...